Livin' in a Gangsta TLF Paradise

Want a tour of TLF? No? Well here it is! This is a picture of the outside.




We got an end unit, which is awesome. Not only is it a handicap unit, which means we have some additional space, it also doesn't have a shared door with the unit next to us. We have heard from friends, who have the shared door in the living room, that you can literally hear your neighbors breathing. Or their baby crying. Or very awkward conversations among married couples. And Troy and I do all three of those things. So we are very thankful that our neighbor can't hear us :)

Here is what you see when you walk in.



We chose to move the bed out of the bedroom and into the living room for several reasons. First, the bathroom isn't actually in the bedroom; it's off the main living area. Which means that if Troy and I stay up after Avery (which we do every night for adult time, quiet, and conversation) we would have to walk into her sleeping space and potentially wake her up to use the bathroom = no good. Second, there is only one window in there, making it easier to blackout for her naps. So move the couch in the living room we did. So far, it has worked out great.



Our efficiency kitchen. It is very small, but functional. I wish we had a dishwasher. OH but I do. His name is Troy. But for real. A dishwasher would be amazing. I am so grateful for a full size refrigerator. We also have this weird, small, poorly placed eat-in bar. We have shoved the chairs into the corner and only left one out for baby girl to eat. We don't have a high chair (oh I want one so badly), so Avery is currently eating in a strap in travel Munchkin seat in the chair at the end of the bar. She has been eating in it since we moved out of our house in San Antonio, just pulled up to a table, and it has been working great. It looks like this. We love it. Buy one for your little ones. It has storage and everything.



We are supposed to keep Optimus in his crate whenever we leave. We don't. The housekeeper loves him. Her name is Sonya and she is from Ireland. Optimus loves her accent. So do I. The maintenance people have also figured out that he sounds vicious from outside the door (after they knock), but he is just excited that someone is visiting him and that he's a big baby. Seriously. He still does the excited puppy pee-all-over-your-feet every time he meets someone new. And he turned 4 on February 20th. So technically he's 30 years old in human years. Peeing on feet at 30 is unacceptable. What's a mom to do?? Anyway. His crate stays in the living room and we use it to hold stuff, as you can see. It is the "drop spot" when we come in from errands. It holds things like the diaper bag, his food and leash, and shoes so that Avery doesn't put them in her mouth. Ew.

In the bedroom, we set up Avery's pack n play, laundry area, and almost all of our clothes. Troy keeps his work clothes in the top drawer of the TV stand in the living room, so that when he has early flights, he isn't waking up Ms. Avery at 5:30am. Here are pics of her room/the bedroom.



As you can see, the headboard to the bed in the living room is attached to the wall. Those sneaky tricksters. It's not a real bed. I would have had no idea. Except Troy moved it into the living room and now the faux headboard is still attached to the wall behind Avery's bed. So now her bed is fancy :) Or tacky. Whichever way you choose to look at it.



There is also a faux closet. When you open the bedroom door, you can't see it. Sort of. Troy and I keep our hang up clothes there. Avery's little girl clothes hang right behind the TV. The top 2 drawers of the TV stand are her clothes and the bottom drawer is her disposable diapers, swim diapers, bathing suits, and wipes.



Troy and I share the long dresser. He has the left 3 drawers and I have the right 3 drawers. We mostly wear gym shorts and t-shirts (Troy) and I wear jean shorts and tank tops. It is REALLY hot here. Like 100 degrees by 11am. Yuck.

Here is the view from the little hallway by the kitchen into the bathroom:



Just keeping it real. It's a little messy. Since we have a handicapped room, there is no closed storage with doors under the sink. A wheelchair has to be able to roll up under there! As a side note, the pipes should be insulated to protect nekkid legs from heat, I believe, but that is a question for my friends Sarah and Scott. So our junk is all exposed on the counter for the world to see. Poor Sonya. She moves all our junk every day to clean the sink. The room behind me is Avery's room.



This is the bathroom. The toilet and the shower. There are handicapped grab bars EVERYWHERE. Which is great. They function as bathing suit, bath toy, and towel dryers. In regular TLF rooms, there is another sink in the bathroom as well. But because we have the wheelchair accessible room, there is room for someone to do a toilet transfer (GO OT!!!) and transfer into the tub as well, which is lined all the way around with grab bars. Again, GO OT!! We use the bars to hold our shampoo and such.



So that's our room. You may have noticed there is no laundry in our room. I did right away. BUT WAIT! Right across the way there is a community laundry room, less than 30 yards from our door.



As many of you know, Troy and I have chosen to use cloth diapers, so laundry room accessibility was very important to us while in TLF. Unfortunately, we had an issue with our diaper sprayer hook up to the back of the toilet. Cheap toilet hardware + diaper sprayer = leaking toilet in the bathroom. Not good. We called the front desk and played dumb. After we took the diaper sprayer off the toilet and put it away. Anyway, we are probably going to have to go the disposable route while in TLF. So sad. But I can't stomach scraping poop off the diaper with a spoon into the toilet (sorry for the visual but you can now see why that is not appealing to me). Which I would then have to hand wash because we don't have a dishwasher.



See the wire rack looking thing all the way on the left side of the picture? It is a laundry cart. So that you aren't carrying wet laundry across the room to the dryer. It will forever remind me of this scene from "Friends.". There are 4 dryers on the left and 4 washers on the right. They are free :) There is an ice machine on the wall in the back and table to fold laundry in the middle.



Now you've seen where we are living until August 17th-ish. If you missed my timeline post, you can see that here.

Anyone else lived in a temporary situation and making the best of it? Have any tips to keep from going crazy while living in a 300 square foot area?